More experienced teachers are likely to benefit students. A developing body of research finds teachers with more years of teaching experience increase student growth on achievement tests more than novice teachers (Kini & Podolsky, 2016; Ladd & Sorensen, 2017). New teachers can educate, mere experience does not produce excellence, and teaching is just one of many factors influencing school outcomes, but on average, researchers frequently find a positive relationship between years of experience and student outcomes. Numerous studies have also concluded that teacher experience, and teacher “quality” more broadly, is racially distributed across the nation (Goldhaber et al., 2015; Knight, 2019) and in California (Shields et al., 1999). Schools with high proportions of students of color have a disproportionate share of inexperienced teachers.

Several policies and initiatives have attempted to address the inequitable distribution of experience, including the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) and other federal policies that have changed in recent years (Knight, 2019). State-level policies and analyses in California have addressed the issue of the distribution of teacher experience, including three annual reports in 2015, 2016, and 2017 titled California’s State Plan to Ensure Equitable Access to Excellent Educators. Public pressure, including a high-profile court case challenging California’s staffing decisions, Vergara v. California, may have influenced the distribution of teacher experience. Given the importance of teacher experience and possible changes in recent years, this policy brief examines the distribution of teacher experience across segregated schools in California.

The analysis used 7 years of school-level student race and teacher experience data in California public schools (see Appendix for details). Several findings are relevant for policymakers and school stakeholders:



Figure 1: Percent of Novice Teachers, By Student Segregation (2012-13 to 2018-19)

One or Fewer Years Experience

Two or Fewer Years Experience

Three or Fewer Years Experience

Data

Teaching experience varied with student segregation (Figure 1). In each of the 7 years analyzed, majority white schools had fewer novice teachers than schools with higher proportions of racially marginalized students. In particular, schools with a student composition that was 90% or greater under-represented minorities had a higher proportion of novice teachers than schools that were majority white or majority white plus Asian. That teacher experience gap doubled from approximately 1.5 percentage points to 3 percentage points between 2012-13 and 2018-19 (for 2 or fewer years experience).

The proportion of teachers with 1, 2 and 3 years of experience or fewer was analyzed (see the separate panels in Figure 1). The results for all three definitions of novice were similar: majority white and majority white plus Asian schools had lower proportions of novice teachers than majority non-white, 90-100% non-white, and 90-100% underrepresented minority schools. In all alternative measurements, the gap began to widen in approx. 2014-15. When defining novice as the proportion of teachers with 3 or fewer years of experience, the experience gap between majority white and majority non-white was approx. 4 percentage points in 2018-19.

The size of these gaps may become practically significant when considering that the effects of teacher (in)experience can accumulate over 12 or more years of schooling. Furthermore, the observed relationship between teacher experience and school segregation may need to be reversed to begin to close racialized achievement gaps. Desegregating schools could also decrease racialized exposure to novice teachers.



Table 1: California Schools with a Majority Novice Faculty (2018-19)

There were 161 schools in 2018-19 where the majority of teachers had 2 or fewer years of teaching experience (Table 1). These schools varied in terms of student segregation, with some schools reporting no white students to one that was 85% white. Approximately 71.4% of schools with a majority novice faculty were disproportionately non-white (based on a white enrollment in the state of approx. 24%). In other words, there was a high concentration of inexperienced teachers in schools with a high concentration of students of color.



Robustness Checks: Alternative Measures of “Novice”

The finding that schools with the highest proportions of racially marginalized students have the least experienced teachers could be an artifact of how teacher experience was measured. Several robustness checks, however, suggest this is not the case. The educational returns to additional years of experience are likely greatest in the first few years of teaching (Kini & Podolsky, 2016), so teachers with a “few years under their belts” are more likely to promote academic growth than new teachers. The primary analysis above used the proportion of teachers with 2 or fewer years of experience. However, because some recent reviews of research find that additional teaching experience is associated with student gains into teachers’ second and even third decade (e.g., Kini & Podolsky, 2016), just looking at the proportion of new teachers may not usefully describe the extent of teacher experience gaps. Several alternative measures were created to see if the central finding was robust to alternative measures of teaching experience. Regardless of the type of measurement, similar teacher experience gaps were identified across racially-identifiable schools.



Figure 2: Novice Teachers and Student Racial Composition (2018-19)

The scatterplots in Figure 2 depict the relationships between mean years of teaching and the percent of the five focal racial groups. Each dot represents a California school in 2018-19. Average years of teaching experience was negatively correlated with African American, under-represented minority, and Hispanic enrollments and positively correlated with white and Asian enrollments. The relationship was strongest with black enrollment and rather weak for the other racialized groups (see the blue best fit lines). The most positive relationship with mean years of teaching experience was the proportion of Asian students. Pooling the data from 2012-13 to 2018-19 created similar results.



Discussion

This analysis identified persistent gaps in teacher experience across segregated schools. Schools with higher proportions of marginalized racial groups had a higher proportion of novice teachers and the trend worsened over time.

There are multiple possible mechanisms through which teacher experience may improve schooling. On-the-job experience may improve teachers’ pedagogical knowledge, learning goals, and classroom practices. Faculties with greater experience may also have positive school-wide effects through improved support networks and mentoring among teachers. Regardless of the specific mechanisms, research consistently finds that more experienced teachers are associated with improved student outcomes and thus the gaps identified are important.

The inequitable distribution of teacher experience in California mirrors national trends. National research finds that the most inexperienced teachers are clustered in schools with the most marginalized students, with racialized minority students more likely to employ “green” teachers (Cardichon et al., 2020; Knight, 2019). Opportunity gaps across race exist in several types of school resources (Carter & Welner, 2013). One interpretation of equitable distribution of school resources suggests that the most marginalized students would receive the most resources to promote equal opportunity. Higher concentrations of the least experienced teachers in racially marginalized schools, which our analysis finds is the case in California, runs counter to that definition of equal opportunity.

With a growing body of research concluding that teacher experience improves school success, teacher experience gaps across segregated schools constitutes part of an ongoing opportunity gap in California. Efforts to address the distribution of teacher experience have been made in recent decades, yet the trends observed in this analysis suggest different approaches are required to improve opportunities to learn for racially marginalized children in California.

Teacher experience gaps may be decreased by reforming several types of policies. Changing teacher tenure, seniority preference, transfer, and dismissal practices may help slightly (Goldhaber et al. (2016)), yet at least two empirical studies suggest other directions may be required (Knight (2019); Koski & Horng (2007)). One study (Knight (2019)) finds additional funding is associated with lower teacher experience gaps across high- and low-poverty schools, although the effect across racially segregated schools is not clear. Another study finds “no persuasive evidence that the seniority preference rules… exacerbate the negative relationship between higher minority schools and uncredentialed and low-experience teachers” (Koski & Horng (2007), p.262).

Given the rather inconclusive evidence on the significance of factors related to human capital management and collective bargaining as causes of teacher experience gaps, other types of policy changes may need to be tried (and studied). One related approach involves offsetting the negative effects of inexperienced teachers through other school reforms such as lowering class sizes in high minority schools. Other possibilities include: changing the distribution of school funding; macroeconomic reforms that affect the labor market competition among high minority schools and other sectors of the economy; and increasing the prestige, economic reward, and well-being that comes with teaching in schools with high proportions of underrepresented children of color.

Regardless of which reforms may best improve the distribution of teacher experience, the best reforms are likely to pay particular attention to racial segregation. The evidence presented in this report adds to a significant body of research concluding that equal educational opportunity is thwarted by school segregation. Addressing racial segregation and the distribution of teacher experience simultaneously may produce the most substantial benefits.


References


Cardichon, J., Darling-Hammond, L., Yang, M., Scott, C., Shields, P. M., & Burns, D. (2020). Inequitable opportunity to learn: Student access to certified and experienced teachers. Learning Policy Institute.
Carter, P. L., & Welner, K. G. (2013). Closing the opportunity gap: What america must do to give every child an even chance. Oxford University Press.
Goldhaber, D., Lavery, L., & Theobald, R. (2015). Uneven playing field? Assessing the teacher quality gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Educational Researcher, 44(5), 293–307.
Goldhaber, D., Lavery, L., & Theobald, R. (2016). Inconvenient truth? Do collective bargaining agreements help explain the mobility of teachers within school districts? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 35(4), 848–880.
Kini, T., & Podolsky, A. (2016). Does teaching experience increase teacher effectiveness? A review of the research. Learning Policy Institute.
Knight, D. S. (2019). Are school districts allocating resources equitably? The every student succeeds act, teacher experience gaps, and equitable resource allocation. Educational Policy, 33(4), 615–649.
Koski, W. S., & Horng, E. L. (2007). Facilitating the teacher quality gap? Collective bargaining agreements, teacher hiring and transfer rules, and teacher assignment among schools in california. Education Finance and Policy, 2(3), 262–300.
Ladd, H. F., & Sorensen, L. C. (2017). Returns to teacher experience: Student achievement and motivation in middle school. Education Finance and Policy, 12(2), 241–279.
Shields, P. M., Esch, C. E., Humphrey, D. C., Young, V. M., Gaston, M., & Hunt, H. (1999). Teaching and california’s future. The status of the teaching profession: Research findings and policy recommendations.


Appendix: Data and Measures

Data came from publicly available staff files provided by the California Department of Education (CDE). The analysis covers all school years made available by CDE: 2012-13 to 2018-19.

The following rules were applied to prepare the data for analysis:

The final analytic data set included an average of 8,856 schools per year.

Measure of Experience

The primary teacher experience measure used was the proportion in each school of teachers with 2 or fewer years of teaching experience. That is, the proportion of schools’ teachers in their first or second year of teaching. Experience, as measured by the CDE, includes prior teaching experience in any school, including outside of California. Experience substitute teaching or classified staff service is not included. A teacher in their first year of employment is categorized by CDE as having 1 year of experience.

Measures of Student Segregation

To examine teacher experience gaps across different types of segregated schools, schools were grouped into one or more of the following categories: majority white, majority white and Asian, majority non-white, 90-100% non-white, and 90-100% Under-Represented Minority (URM). “Majority white and Asian” included Filipino. Non-white was defined as a sum of all the racial groups provided by CDE other than white (i.e., Hispanic, African American, Asian, American Indian, Filipino, Pacific Islander, and Two or More races). Under-Represented Minority was defined as the sum of students classified as Hispanic, African American, American Indian, Pacific Islander, or Two or More races.




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